Its very common for printers to use an expression like 4-up, 8-up 0r 10-up. Despite it being as hot as it has been in Southeast Pennsylvania the past few days, these are not references to cans of soda. They are actually all expressions to describe the imposition of a project onto a page for printing.
Imposition simply refers to the way a sheet of paper is laid out for printing. When a file is processed in pre-production an operator will work with the pressman to determine the best orientation, position and order for a work to be printed. This becomes especially important when printing complex products like booklets, because it allows the pressman to run multiple pages at once – saving time and money.
Lets look at a simplified example using business cards. A business card printed 4-up would have 4 individual cards on one sheet
and it would follow that and 8-up sheet would have 8 cards on it
and a 10-up sheet would have 10 cards on it.
These are all simple and small impositions chosen just as easy examples, but they begin to show how a printer thinks when preparing a project for printing. At home you may just print one of whatever you need, when you need it.This is fine for small things, but when you start thinking about larger quantities, you will realize pretty quickly that you will be wasting a lot of paper and money.
As professional printers we often print large runs of a single item. In order to do this economically and with as little waste as possible we try to use as much of a sheet of paper as we can. Aside from being environmentally responsible this has the added benefit of saving time on our presses and that translates into savings for our customers.
There are other considerations to keep in mind as well. When laying out a product a press operator has to consider if it has bleed, whether it will be bound or finished in some way that requires attention to the excess paper surrounding the actual project. If a letterhead is printed on paper with a watermark, then a pre-press operator must be sure that the printing is in the right direction to match that watermark. And of course we consider what is the easiest and most efficient way to impose a product for the presses we have and the output we are looking for.
It is important to remember that most, if not all, imposition is handled by pre-press personnel, but its a good idea to be familiar with the concepts so you can approach a project wisely and be sure that you’re designs and ideas are being printed effectively.
As always, if you have any questions, feel free to ask below, or stop on by.
